It is known to house fluid medicament in a receptacle (e.g. a bottle, vial or ampoule) having a piercable closure such as a rubber stopper. Such receptacles are typically made from medical grade glass which is non-reactive with the medicament. However, glass is intrinsically brittle. This means that the receptacle is likely to break if dropped. This leads to wastage of the medicament. Moreover, the medicament may be toxic and its spillage a health hazard.
To address this problem, it is known to house the receptacle in a protective container. The protective container may be constructed as an applicator through which a user holds the receptacle and accesses and dispenses the medicament, e.g. by providing the container with an aperture through which a syringe needle can be inserted through the rubber stopper of the receptacle for withdrawal of a dose of the medicament into the syringe.
While the use of a protective container resolves the problem of spillage, the protective containers in the art could be improved to provide better protection against breakage of the receptacle if the container is dropped.
As an example of a previously proposed protective container there may be mentioned the protective containers in which 250 ml glass bottles of the bovine respiratory disease antibiotic Micotil® (tilmicosin) are sold by Eli Lilly and Company Limited. The protective container is particularly needed in this instance because the glass bottle will invariably be used in conditions where there is a likelihood of it being dropped and broken, especially when trying to insert a needle into the stopper of the bottle, e.g. because the cattle are stressed and therefore difficult to handle, the medicament is being administered outdoors in adverse weather conditions and/or the medicament is being administered while riding horseback. This prior protective container has a 3-piece construction. Moreover, it is made from polycarbonate to make it transparent so that there is no need for an overlabel as the label on the bottle can be observed.
Another hitherto proposed protective container for a medicament-filled glass bottle is made known in EP-A-0 303 781. This protective safety container has a base part and a hollow, generally cylindrical body part which snap fit together to hold the bottle therein. A plurality of spaced-apart ribs extend longitudinally over the inner surface of the side of the container to space the side of the bottle from the inner surface of the container. These “spacers” act to provide air cushions circumferentially around the side of the bottle. The base has a bottom wall which is concave to provide a raised centre on which the bottom of the bottle sits and a surrounding annular air cushion. The top wall of the body part has a central depression in which is formed an aperture closed by a frangible seal. The depression results in an annular air cushion being formed about the top of the bottle. Removal of the seal allows a needle to be inserted through the stopper into the bottle.
While the protective container disclosed in EP-A-0 303 781 provides air cushions for protecting the bottle against breakage, other aspects of the container construction counteract its usefulness. For instance, the outer surface of the side of the container is smooth. Thus, the container can land on one of the longitudinal ribs causing the bottle to be compressed and break. In addition, one side of the seal contacts the bottle while the other side forms a tab which is proud of the top wall of the body part. Accordingly, an end-on impact will result in the bottle being compressed between the seal and the bottom wall of the base and breaking.
The hitherto proposed protective containers could also be improved in other areas to make them more user friendly. As an example, it is not always easy to hold the protective container and to insert a syringe needle through the container aperture into the stopper. It would therefore be useful to provide an alternative means for discharging a dose of the fluid medicament from the receptacle housed in the protective container.
In this connection, it is previously known to use a nozzle accessory for discharging the fluid medicament contained in a receptacle having a rubber stopper held in place by an annular metal crimp. The nozzle accessory has an outer sleeve which is mounted on a central, tubular spike so that a sharp distal tip of the spike protrudes distally from the sleeve. The sleeve has a distal end which is split into a plurality of resilient finger elements, each finger element having an inwardly directed flange. As the accessory is manoeuvred so that the sharp distal tip pierces the rubber stopper to provide a discharge path for the fluid medicament through the spike, the resilient fingers are forced over the crimp to cause the flanges to engage the underside of the crimp thereby connecting the accessory to the receptacle.
It would also be useful to provide a means for hanging the protective container to make it easier to access the stopper of the receptacle.
In this connection, it is also previously known to provide a protective container for housing a fluid medicament receptacle of the type referred to above having a fixed hanger for hanging the container which is located in a recess in a surface of the container so as not to protrude from the surface.
It is an aim of the present invention to improve the ability of protective containers to protect the article contained therein from breakage in the event of the protective container being dropped.
It is further an aim of the present invention to provide a protective container which is more user friendly.